Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems 861v9 speculation thread

Knowing Meridian, it wouldn't surprise me if they offloaded (distributed) some of the processing to a new piece of kit that the 861 talked to.

A kind of HD621, but on the output side for those who want Atmos etc.

A single trunked input from 861, *lots* of channels out.

Wild speculation.

'Wild speculation'

Everything is at the moment nice guess though

Russ

If M ever do support object-based audio then I think it is clear they will have to depart from their current 'decoding-done-in-the-source' model. As discussed previoulsy, my money is on a massively upgraded HD621 (hopefully 822) which will decode everything.

How the extra channels are handled is a key question: is this via a 861v10 or another box. I think we will have to wait a (quite a) while to find out. In the mean time, a Marantz 8802 will fill in HT duties for me.

Where would the decoding be done in this model? Can't see a HDMI input let anywhere near a 861.

New/revised HD621, I guess + new protocol into 861.

I am sure I read somewhere that big companies like Onkyo and Marantz / Denon due to volume got the licence for the likes of Dolby Atmos a year before smaller companies were allowed it.

I dont know if its been a year but I would have thought it will then take time for the smaller companies to get there hands on it and develop it for their own products.

DTSX seems better as you can use Front Height speakers instead of ceiling speakers which is much easier to integrate into the home environment and they have said 2 speakers in a hemispherical location is minimum really to get that correct effect - but it would work with that setup

I thought that was excellent news for people not keen on ceiling speakers

EllisDJ

With Rhonda Wilson ex Meridian now at Dolby I would have thought Meridian would have 'special access' ?

Russ

Not sure about that, Theta, Trinnov and Datasat have had Atmos for a while, at least in the development side. Many of these companies got access via their pro side.

I'm fairly sure the limiting factor is how long Meridian need before they can produce an Atmos solution they consider worthy - and of course whether they consider it worth selling at all - rather than any problem with licensing the codec in the first place.

Yes, rather like 3D being a flash-in-the-pan. All that engineering and customer spend going down the toilet.

I do believe object-based audio rendering will become the norm in time (not necessarily with silly numbers of speakers). I also think it would be a good fit to M�s expertise.

The trouble is Cliff, isn't it Dolby and co. who are pushing this, not the studios (who will have to invest in capital and expertise to achieve this, much like 3D...).

Or have the studios been asking for this?